The Río General

 

 Costa Rica Leadership Students Raft the Rio General

Costa Rica is known for its world-class whitewater rafting. It has many fantastic rivers for all skill levels, on which rafting trips can last anywhere from a few hours to a four or five days.

Our Water & Wave students are currently on a multiple day rafting trip on of Costa Rica's most famous rivers, the Rio General(map? or wiki). Rio General is near San Isidro, in the South West portion of the country.

The Rio General is typically a Class III to Class IV river, as defined by the International Scale of River Difficulty.

Although there are more than 1,000 miles of rapids in this huge river system, Costa Rica Outward Bound courses typically run the portion from San Isidro to El Brujo. (This is also the part that gets the most commercial attention). While this portion of the river is only about 40 miles long, it produces a different kind of whitewater experience from others of Costa Rica's rivers. Kayakers in particular love surfing the Rio General's huge waves and tackling the big holes and rapids not found in Costa Rica's other rivers.
(From Costa Rica Outdoors)

For more information on Costa Rica's other whitewater rivers, click here, and to follow the progress of our Water & Wave students, or any of our other courses, check out updates on our Facebook page.

Halloween in Costa Rica

This weekend is Halloween! Time for candy and costumes, ghosts and ghouls. While Halloween isn't a traditional Costa Rican holiday, it is quickly gaining prominence, especially among the younger Ticos. Here is a great blog post from "Eye On Costa Rica" about Halloween in CR!

Halloween….in Costa Rica. A Happy Holiday?...: "Well, it’s almost that time of year again, October 31st, when countries like the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, France and many other countries around the world celebrate Halloween. A mostly unfamiliar tradition in Costa Rica..."

Meet The Instructors: Leadership Fall 2010

Meet The Instructors for our Fall 2010 Leadership Course. For more information on our Field Staff and to see their certifications, click here.

Alexandra Cervantes, Hiking Instructor

Hometown: Managua, Nicaragua

About: Even though she was born in Nicaragua, she moved to Miami, FL, at age four, then went to Montreat College in North Carolina, where she earned a Bachelor of Environmental Studies and Outdoor Education. Since then, she moved to Nicaragua, Boulder, CO, and then back to Nicaragua where she currently works as a science teacher at the American Nicaraguan School.

Sean Marr, Lead Instructor
Hometown: Doylestown, PA

About: Before joining Costa Rica Outward Bound, Sean spent time studying in Mexico, and then teaching ESL in Pennsylvania. Although he loves traveling, Sean is very close to his family and plans to move to the states when he gets older. 
Read more: Sean's Leadership Series profile and Canopy Chronicle article

Orlando Zamora, Hiking Instructor

Hometown: Piedras Blancas, Costa Rica
 

About: Orlando is arguably the strongest instructor we have at Costa Rica Outward Bound. He not only built his house for his wife and five kids, but he carried their cast iron stove 15 km to his house on mountainous rainforest terrain.Last December, he carried the large water tank 12 km to the small village during a water supply service project.

Mauren Granados, Hiking Instructor
Hometown: Piedras Blancas, Costa Rica

About: Mauren is one of our toughest female instructors. She knows the rainforests of Costa Rica inside and out, and is always happy to share her knowledge. One of Mauren's surprising passions is for watching free-style motocross. When she's not instructing courses, Mauren enjoys playing soccer with people in her town.

Joe Ewing, River Instructor
Hometown: Castle Rock, CO

About:  When he is not rafting or river kayaking, Joe is a one man show on his banjo. He has a passion for the environment, a seemingly tireless supply of energy and a gift for story-telling.  Joe is always fun to have around and is an undisputed master of the river.

More On Joe: YouTube video,  Leadership Series profile

New Four-Legged Additions to the Costa Rica Outward Bound Family

Bienvenidos to the two newest additions to the Costa Rica Outward Bound Family - Zoe and Rocky! They are both American Staffordshire Terriers, like "Petey the Pup" from the movie Little Rascals. Don't be alarmed though - these two dogs are the sweetest things on four legs, and are fast becoming favorites here on base! Zoe, the grey-blue pup is a year and three months, while baby Rocky is only three months. Check them out in action!

Carnaval in the Caribbean

This week is Carnaval in Limón, Costa Rica. Limón, which is a port town on the central Caribbean coast, is famous for having the largest Carnaval celebration in all of Costa Rica. It's a cultural celebration that has also become a major tourist spectacle, attracting thousands of visitors from across Costa Rica and abroad.

The week-long festival which began last Wednesday celebrates La Día de las Culturas, or the Day of Cultures. This makes its setting in Limón fitting, since the Caribbean coast is a melting pot of Spanish-Costa Rican, African and Caribbean Culture.

Leading the festivities are the comparsas, or the traditional dance groups. The term comparsas applies to any traditional dance group in any Latino part of the world, but at the Limón Carnaval the comparsas are truly the spirit of the Caribbean city during the festival celebrations.

Tico Comparsas spend the entire year leading up to Carnaval carefully combining Africa, Caribbean and Costa Rican motifs into their dances, costumes and music. They will be center stage on Saturday, when Limón Carnaval culminates with a street party un-matched anywhere in Costa Rica.

 Check out the video above to watch some comparsas in action!